The latest daily death toll was the highest since the pandemic began in the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

 

Meanwhile, another 33,355 people in Britain have tested positive for Covid-19, the lowest daily increase since the start of the year, according to the BBC.

 

Earlier Tuesday, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that about one in ten people across Britain tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in December, roughly double the October figure.

 

The ONS study measures antibodies in people who live in private households across Britain and does not include those in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.

 

"This study shows that infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus is much more widespread in the UK than previously realized...The implications are that infection rates increased significantly between November and December," Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick Medical School, told the BBC.

 

England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.